Editor's note: Ken Stevens is multimedia specialist for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. He has worked for the local news organization for 27 years.

MUSKEGON,
MI -- Courtroom photography with emotions running high can produce difficult, but important images.

That was the case this week in trying to capture photos during emotional testimony in the murder trial
of Eric John Knysz, 20, suspected in the killing of Michigan State
Police Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II on Sept. 9, 2013 during a
routine traffic stop in rural Mason County.

During the trial, Mason County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Steve Hansen
was given Butterfield's hat by Mason County Prosecutor Paul
Spaniola and asked if that was indeed the hat he was wearing. After a brief moment holding it up for the jury
to see, with a bullet hole, Hansen began to emotionally break down.

That photo and several others are
part of this edition of the MLive Muskegon Chronicle's weekly feature
called Ken Stevens Picks Pics, highlighting some of the top photographs
shot recently by staff. The feature also provides some photography tips.

In the highlighted photo, I used a 300mm lens from the back of the courtroom and had my camera set in the quiet mode so as to be as least disruptive as possible.

For MLive multimedia intern Madelyn Hastings, her Valentine's Day assignment was much less serious and on the fun side to document.

"The owners were generous enough to open their doors to me and show me around the chaos that is one of the biggest flower-selling days of the year," Hastings said of her first stop at Wasserman's. "The back room had people coming in and out the entire time I was there and it was quite the adventure trying to compose a variety of images out of the madness."

Our latest installment of What we love about Muskegon was about our popular ice fishing season that Muskegon is having this year.

"I took a short trip out to Muskegon Lake one evening just before the sun set in attempting to capture a few ice fishermen doing what they do best. I was pleasantly surprised to find the perfect backdrop of Muskegon to add a little bit of spark to the grey and gloom this winter has been. The background was the perfect touch to what could have been a mediocre setting and I was pleased with how it turned out," Hastings said.

For MLive intern Natalie Kolb, this past week took her to photograph the hazardous walking on the ice on Lake Michigan.

"I went to check out the Grand Haven pier since people had fallen in during the past weekend. As I was driving the snow started pelting down and by the time I had gotten to the pier it was nearly a complete white-out. I didn't see any sign of people but I saw cars parked in the lot. I waited for a few minutes and then I saw the outline of people making their way back from the pier. I darted out of my car to the top of a dune and snapped a few pictures and ran back. It was almost impossible to see at that point," Kolb said.